Anne Krediet
I study the animals living in the soil and their reaction to climate change, alongside my job as a biology and mathematics teacher. My research focuses on climatic extremes and how these modify arthropod communities and their functioning. In the soil system, a special role is played by earthworms. These ‘ecosystem engineers’ modify their environment by burrowing, so their response to climate change is crucial.
Specifically, I test which traits determine species’ response under extreme climatological conditions. The trait approach makes the results extrapolatable, allowing better prediction of global effects of climatic extremes on soil fauna. I also look at the effect of climate change on earthworms and the cascading effects on the soil system.